3356  taxi dancers (dance hosts) are nothing new

Date: Sun, 10 Apr 2005 00:52:30 -0300
From: Janis Kenyon <jantango@FEEDBACK.NET.AR>
Subject: taxi dancers (dance hosts) are nothing new

Sergio wrote:
<<It was a club for Ballroom dancing American Style. Taxi dancers were
called
"Public relations people", men were dressed with black pants, starched white
shirt and black bow tie, women were in nice dresses. The interesting aspect
was that while women had to pay to dance with the boys (one dollar per
dance) the girls walked around inviting to dance men that were sitting alone
for free.>>

My mother was a member of the "400 Club" at the Aragon Ballroom on Lawrence
Avenue and Broadway in Chicago during the late 1930s. She attended a
weekday evening to work as a dance hostess and then she was given free
admission to dance other nights. It's where she met my father in 1939.

The hot topics of conversation around the milongas these days have been the
accident in Confiteria Ideal, higher entradas at the milongas, the letter
circulated to boycott La Turca's milonga, when will Lo de Celia finally
open, and men working as taxi dancers in the milongas. I was dancing with
Mario and asked him if he had heard about men being paid $10 per hour to
dance with women. In turn he asked jokingly, "how much should I charge?"
And then he added, "someone could offer me $50,000, but if it's someone I
don't want to dance with, I'm not willing to suffer." I understand what he
means. A tanda with Mario is priceless.

Janis Kenyon
Buenos Aires

Date: Sun, 10 Apr 2005 16:18:41 +0000
From: Jay Rabe <jayrabe@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: taxi dancers (dance hosts) are nothing new

Janis, what was the deal with the letter to boycott La Turca's milonga?

J in Portland
www.TangoMoments.com